Man arrested for firebombing Yale power plant

Police arrested a West Haven man Friday night for, among other things, throwing a Molotov cocktail at Yale’s Central Power Plant on June 7. No one was hurt in the ensuing fire, which workers quickly extinguished.

Robert Thompson, 30, told police that he was glad about being arrested so he could tell them what he did.

According to news reports, Thompson told police that he was trying to “melt down” the plant, which is located next to Swing Space and actually happened to melt itself down last year. He explained that Allah told him to steal the fuel from a North Haven hobby store in order to carry out the firebombing.

Thompson also confessed to several other crimes, including robberies dating back to 2004 and the recent theft of a car from the corner of Chapel and Church streets. He also claimed he had planted pipe bombs under a bridge near the city’s border with West Haven, though a bomb squad searched the bridge in question and found nothing. Police are still probing his involvement in the other crimes.

Puzzlingly, Thompson apparently told police he committed the robberies to show “the system” that he is not insane. His plan appears to have backfired, as he is now in prison on a mental health watch.